Email Newsletters

Daily Photo Galleries

McKeesport Photo Galleries

Traveling by Jeep, boat and foot, Tribune-Review investigative reporter Carl Prine and photojournalist Justin Merriman covered nearly 2,000 miles over two months along the border with Mexico to report on coyotes — the human traffickers who bring illegal immigrants into the United States. Most are Americans working for money and/or drugs. This series reports how their operations have a major impact on life for residents and the environment along the border — and beyond.

McKeesport and Elizabeth are two of 24 municipalities statewide to receive a share of $8.8 million for automated red light enforcement through PennDOT.

PennDOT officials announced the awards for 32 safety projects on Wednesday. No timetable was announced for when the funds will be distributed.

McKeesport will use its $279,000 to replace and upgrade the traffic signals at the intersections of Fifth Avenue and Romine Street, and Walnut and Ninth streets.

“Those were two intersections we were looking to update to red lights,” Mayor Michael Cherepko said. “Those were two that did not get done over the last year or two when we reset the lights.”

Cherepko said most of the city's traffic lights on Lysle Boulevard, W. Fifth Avenue and Walnut Street were addressed the past two years.

“At this point we are extremely excited and grateful, and greatly anticipating the arrival of funds so we can get busy and work toward completing these two projects,” Cherepko said.

Elizabeth will get $120,800 to improve the traffic signal controller and add light emitting diode lights at the intersection of Market Street, Second and Third avenues, and at McKeesport Road and Church Street.

“We're absolutely thrilled. This is something that we were waiting on,” council president Monica Glowinski said.

Glowinski said the borough applied for the funds in July 2013 with the help of Twin Rivers Council of Governments engineers and Trans Associates.

Glowinski said the new LED lights will improve efficiency, and the traffic signal box will be moved so that it won't be struck by big trucks.

“It's very much needed for our municipality,” Glowinski said. “It's a shot in the arm. It will improve public safety. It will improve the bottom line.”

McKeesport and Elizabeth officials were notified Wednesday of the state funding.

Other Allegheny County municipalities to receive funding are Coraopolis, Millvale, Mt. Lebanon and Upper St. Clair.

Under state law, fines from red light violations at 25 Philadelphia intersections supply funds for the grants. The program aims to improve safety at signalized intersections by providing automated enforcement where data shows red-light violations have been a problem.

TribLive commenting policy

You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our Terms of Service.

We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.

We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments  either by the same reader or different readers.

We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.

We do not edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.

We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don't want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly.

We appreciate it when readers and people quoted in articles or blog posts point out errors of fact or emphasis and will investigate all assertions. But these suggestions should be sent via e-mail. To avoid distracting other readers, we won't publish comments that suggest a correction. Instead, corrections will be made in a blog post or in an article.

Total Promotional Solutions

A division of Trib Total Media is your one-stop-shop for all of your branded merchandise needs.

We specialize in providing quality affordable promotional products for every type of business including non-profits, schools, universities, sports teams and more. With 1000’s of products to choose from, our knowledgeable staff can help you find the perfect apparel item or product to suit your needs and budget.

Digital Sales

We offer a wide variety of traditional and new digital advertising options customized to fit your needs!

Whether you're just starting out, or you've been a keystone in the community for years, our knowledgeable staff can provide you with a customized package including online banners/advertisements, Social Media Marketing (Facebook / Twitter), Website development, Search Engine Optimization, Email Marketing solutions and much more!

Contact your local sales rep today for details, personalized proposal and a meeting to discuss how we can meet your needs.